[5] SPRITES, BLUE JETS, & ELVES: THE DEMONS ABOVE THE CLOUDS
* Late in the 20th century, atmospheric scientists discovered an interesting mystery of science.
Sprites
Gamma-ray flashes produced in Earth's atmosphere by severe lightning storms and upper atmospheric events.
Van Allen Belt ...
red sprites (NASA Thesaurus) See sprites reddening (Galileo Project Glossary - JPL) The phenomenon of the trailing hemisphere of a planetary body being darker at shorter wavelengths ("redder") than the leading hemisphere.
However, when miners were unable to extract any copper from it they blamed a mischievous sprite of German mythology, Nickel (similar to Old Nick) for besetting the copper. They called this ore Kupfernickel from the German Kupfer for copper.
Puck is a mythological fairy or mischievous nature sprite. Puck is also a generalised personification of land spirits. Whilst being an aspect of Robin Goodfellow, he is also 'Hob ' and Will-o'-the-wisp....
Sentman, D. D. and Wescott, E. M. "Red Sprites and Blue Jets: High-Altitude Optical Emissions Linked to Lightning." EOS, Trans. Amer. Geophys. Union 77, 1-4, 1996.
Umbriel -- In Alexander Pope's poem "The Rape of the Lock", a "dusky, melancholy sprite".
Uranus -- Planet seventh in order from the sun. In Greek mythology, god of the sky, mate of the goddess of the Earth, and father of the Titans.
Airline pilots used to report sightings of strange flashes above thunderstorms, which remained taboo until the space shuttle also imaged them in the early 1990s. These ‘sprites' and ‘ ...
The cause of this phenomenon is not known, but it is currently suspected to be related to "Sprites": lightening flashes which are occasionally seen jumping upwards from cloud tops to the upper stratosphere.
 See also: Light, Earth, Sun, Atmosphere, Field
  
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